


Until The Next Time

by ArcaneDesires



Category: Life Is Strange 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Goodbyes, Hurt/Comfort, It's a god damn 'Until the next Time', Light Angst, M/M, This ain't a goodbye, Until The Next Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 11:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19005337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcaneDesires/pseuds/ArcaneDesires
Summary: “I guess this really is it. Good... Goodbye right?” He chokes on the last part and it takes everything he has not to just collapse and let the tears rush down like a waterfall.The look Finn gives him is beyond heartbreaking. His dreads bounce with the shaking of his head and he smiles again, gentle and bittersweet.“Nah sweetie, this ain't a goodbye.” Finn replies with certainty.





	Until The Next Time

Heart pounding so hard that it's literally all he can hear, Sean stops at the top of the road and soaks in the warmth pressed against him for the last time. His stomach drops, this will be the last time he ever gets to feel this and his heart breaks all over again.

He swallows, licks his lips, glances up. Finn is looking ahead, face lost in thought. His brow is furrowed in a frown and geez he looks so stupidly beautiful, he just wants to grab his face and kiss him all over. The thought startles him, but he smiles and it's at that moment that the older male turns and meets his gaze.  
  
The hand on his shoulder squeezes gently. He doesn't hesitate, lifts his hand, curls it around Finn's. His fingers are gripping so tightly to it, that for a second, he's worried he's about to break it. He takes in a deep breath, but it's still not enough and he can tell Finn knows.  
  
Calloused hands lift, both of them settle on his shoulders, turn him towards him. Sean lets himself melt into that touch, just for a few seconds. Relishes in it for the space of a heart beat, but no more because he can't do it. He can't do it for longer than that.  
  
He opens his mouth to speak, finds his voice is lost and clamps his mouth shut again. He can't do this, he doesn't know how and it hurts. Fuck, it hurts so much!  
  
“This is it sweetie,” Finn says, voice low, broken.  
  
He gives up, just nods because yeah, it is. It's the end of this, the start of something new and he's not sure he can bring himself to actually leave. How is he supposed to just walk away from this and not fall completely to pieces when he does?  
  
“Finn.” He means to say more but the rest of the words are blocked up in a room and they just won't slip through the barely opened door. Instead they lurk like a bad dream in the recesses of his mind and heart and gods this hurts!  
  
A rough hand slides up, a sad smile on slightly parted lips. Lips that he just wants to kiss again and again and again. Finn runs his hand over the bandage covering his eye, down his cheek, across his jaw and then finally a thumb brushes over his lower lip. It's like he's memorizing his face with so much more than just his eyes. Sean can understand that desire so much better than he ever wanted to know.  
  
He shudders and tries again. “I guess this really is it. Good... Goodbye right?” He chokes on the last part and it takes everything he has not to just collapse and let the tears rush down like a waterfall.  
  
The look Finn gives him is beyond heartbreaking. His dreads bounce with the shaking of his head and he smiles again, gentle and bittersweet.

“Nah sweetie, this ain't a goodbye.” Finn replies with certainty.  
  
His voice is so soft. Sean can almost literally see the chunk of his heart that breaks off and floats away, right before his very eyes. A piece of his own heart follows along with it.  
  
This aches more than any physical pain could. How is he supposed to leave this place when Finn's looking at him like he's losing something so important? Like he's literally had the home and happiness ripped out from under him. And he knows so badly what that's like, knows it all too well.  
  
“What...” He swallows around the lump forming in his throat, coughs and then tries again. “What is it then?”  
  
Brown eyes search the other's face and he's not sure what it is he's seeing there, but it's not complete sorrow. It's understanding and sincerity and so much fucking love, it physically hurts. It's a feeling that buries itself into every fibre of his being.  
  
“Till the next time sweetie. That's all it is. Goodbye's are final, this ain't forever, it's just until the next time.”  
  
He forgets about fighting it. His bad eye stings with unshed tears, but his good eye fills with hot tears that paint almost invisible trails down his skin. If it weren't for the glittering of them in the light as it moves, his sorrow would be silent and completely unnoticeable. But Finn sees them and those hands are suddenly cupping his face in a way that makes his knees weak.  
  
“How am I supposed to believe in that Finn? Every time I find something good, it gets ripped away and I can't... I can't hold onto anything good any more. It fucking hurts.”  
  
“Sweetheart, no. You gotta let yourself feel the good. You deserve so many good things honey, don't do that to yourself. It hurts right now, like you wouldn't believe, but it's just until next time. Until the next time.”  
  
Sean's fingers twitch. He moves to grab the other and hold on, thinks better of it, then suddenly he's in his arms anyway and he's sure he's leaving bruises everywhere he clings to him. The tears fall freely now and he can feel the way Finn shakes against him.  
  
He sobs until his throat is sore, tears drying because he just can't cry any more, there's no more tears to fall and his hands ache from holding onto Finn so hard. He hasn't complained one time though and there's probably gonna be hand prints burned into his own hips for a few days after this.  
  
The thought of that, of a brand he wears upon his skin, one no one but he knows about, fills in some of the cracks in his heart with a weird kind of happiness. The idea of a mark that reminds him that this was all real and he's alive, brings a smile to his lips despite the gravity of this situation.  
  
“I'm gonna miss you so much. I don't know how to do this without you,” he whispers.  
  
With fingers digging into Finn's shoulders, he holds on as if he can just keep him there always and not let him slip through his fingers, like sand in an hourglass. Cheeks wet with tears, Sean shifts and ducks his head against the other males neck.  
  
Finn brushes his face against his before he pulls back, hands once more cupping his face, foreheads pressed together. He kisses him on the cheek, his nose and finally lifts up a little to kiss first one eyelid and then the other. Sean laughs, startled and slightly amused by the action, but the sound is slightly weak even to his own ears.  
  
“You can do this sweetie. You can. You're so strong Sean, you're amazing and you... You got this baby, you know you do. You just gotta believe in yourself.”  
  
Sean presses himself so close that almost every part of him is somehow connected to the other male and he sobs again. Because no, that's not true, but he appreciates the sentiment so much he can't even voice it.  
  
“You're amazing,” he manages to whisper somewhere in the vicinity of the others neck, inhaling to capture his scent one last time before he pulls back.  
  
With a slight hiccup, he breaks the hold, smiles a watery smile. He wants to kiss him one last time. His heart sinks as it fills with lead at the ever present reminder that this is it, the end. At least for a long time. But he can't do that, because it will just hurt too much.  
  
Finn takes the decision out of his hands, arms wrapping around him, holding the back of his head and pulling him close again. With a groan he stretches up slightly and Sean tilts his head down that tiny bit to make it easier. Their lips crash together with a desperation and urgency he's never felt before. It's sloppy and messy and so damn near perfect his heart stutters in his chest.  
  
Unlike their first and only other kiss, there's no precision, no calm patient movements that melt his heart and make his head spin. It's a goodbye, I'll miss you, I fucking need you so much, a come with me, I can't and I can't do this, all in one. And it's so much more as well. It's everything and yet so simple a goodbye at the same time.  
  
Finn's tongue darts out, testing. He parts his lips and tightens one hand in his hair, tugging slightly at the dreaded locks, while the other sneaks just beneath the edge of his t-shirt. Fingertips just barely skimming the skin on Finn's hip, he hesitantly brushes his tongue over Finn's and somehow the kiss transforms.  
  
The hurried desperation from before fades, replaced by something slow and sweet, languid and so utterly Finn, that Sean feels faint and weak. His tongue is gently sweeping over and against his and those hands... Finn's own fingers are pushing beneath the material of his hoodie, greedily exploring the flesh he finds and it's amazing, beautiful and so, so painful all at once.  
  
Slowly the kiss changes again, tongues withdrawing, lips closing and it turns into multiple soft pecks before stopping altogether. Eyes opening, Sean blinks and wonders when did he even close them anyway?

“I'll miss you too sweetie. You have no idea how fucking much I'll miss you.” Finn tells him, placing one last kiss to the corner of his mouth.  
  
“Dude, not helping,” Sean mutters back, shoving gently at his shoulder.  
  
“I know. Sorry sweetie, sorry.”  
  
That isn't the word he wants to hear. Just one last time, he wants to hear Finn's soft tone while he calls him sweetheart, but he can't bring himself to voice it.  
  
“I gotta go. I... I need to go.”  
  
He turns, moves to do exactly that, because if he doesn't do it right now, he never will and he has to. He just has to. He needs to find Daniel, needs to fix this however he can.  
  
Stomach twisted in both the best and worst of knots and heart resting somewhere by his feet instead of where it should be, he takes a step forward. He stops at the hand that clamps around his wrist, a brief feeling of deja vu hitting him and waits for whatever is going to come next.  
  
“Until the next time sweetie. That's all this is, just until the next time OK?”  
  
He looks over his shoulder and he can feel the moment his face crumples once more because Finn's already soppy face falls right alongside his own.  
  
“I'll find you sweetheart. One day, somehow, I will. Maybe we'll be grey and old, but I'll find you.”  
  
Oh gods that stings so much! He shakes his head, heart thumping wildly in his chest, breath catching in his throat.  
  
“Don't... Don't make promises you can't... can't keep, Finn. Please.”  
  
“You found me once already and next time it's my turn. I'll find you honey, not even a question. You know I'll find you.”  
  
His legs almost fail beneath him. Sean smiles, despite the fact that the rest of him just wants to curl into a ball and cry.  
  
“Until the next time, r-right?” His words are a plea for this to be real even though logically he knows it's not. He just wants to pretend for a little while longer.  
  
“Yeah baby, until the next time.” Finn confirms, a squeeze to his hand that's probably meant to be their last goodbye. Their final touch.  
  
It's both too much and not enough and Sean wants something different for that one last moment. He surprises even himself when he leans forward this time, placing a careful but swift kiss to the others lips. He delights in Finn's wide eyed and utterly blissed out look and then walks away with a smile that he finds is actually just slightly on the side of happy now.  
  
He's about half way down the road when a voice calls him back, Finn waving and bouncing around like an overgrown puppy.  
  
“Hey Sean! I love you sweetheart!” he calls, lifting his hands and blowing him a double kiss. Pushes it towards him with a flourish Penny would probably approve of.  
  
Warmth floods his system, replaces the cold dread that was just starting to creep in and sink it's claws deep into him. The stupid, adorable, ridiculously sweet action, chases the darkness so far away he almost, **almost** , feels like it'll never return.  
  
He lifts one hand in a salute, smiles through the tears that are rapidly threatening a return at the indignant 'hey' he can just about hear. Then because he can't just leave it at that, despite feeling like an idiot, he puts a hand to his own lips and blows him a kiss right back.  
  
“I love you too man! Love you so much!” he calls, walking backwards a few steps before he turns and walks away.  
  
The tears that fall now don't hurt quite so much. It's a good cry and it aches, but fuck, he chooses to believe this isn't really goodbye. It's simply until the next time, and that's something his battered heart can just about cope with.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Um so yeah I needed some fluff but apparently I'm still also the angst queen over on the SINNers discord right now. So then this happened. But like it's sweet Bittersweet but still somewhat sweet and omg if we don't get some kind of goodbye in the game I will literally hulk smash the world to pieces!
> 
> I need sweet, pure fluff for these boys like you wouldn't believe! <3 Also if you cry like I did writing it, (maybe I'm over emotional who knows) then I'm sorry! Sort of not but mostly I am sorry.


End file.
